


Earth: The Fatal Frontier

by Natasja



Category: Original Work
Genre: Beware the wildlife, Don’t copy to another site, Earth is Space Australia, F/M, Gen, Guerrilla Warfare, Humans might have been conquered by an Alien Invasion, Or not because it's basically just getting aliens to the point where natural selection takes over, but fucked if they're going to be helpful to their new overlords
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-30
Updated: 2019-03-30
Packaged: 2019-12-26 17:29:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 733
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18286946
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Natasja/pseuds/Natasja
Summary: The Invasion of Earth had been seamless, their primitive technology barely more of a hinderance than a locked door to a battering ram.But, as every commander knows, Capturing new territory is very different to Holding it, and no-one expected the wildlife to be this much of an issue. The Humans are not being very helpful about how to survive their Deathworld.





	Earth: The Fatal Frontier

Their prisoner/guide would be much easier to tolerate, the captain thought, if she wasn’t so clearly enjoying their suffering. 

Solaris 3 - “Earth”, as the natives called it - was unmistakably a Deathworld of epic proportions. The captain of the A”vaar’i might have even called it a Hellworld, if not for the knowledge that he would get demoted for doing so. How the primitive humans had survived for so long was a mystery.

The captain looked again at the guide, a female of what he had been told was average age for the species. She was knowledgable about the monsters they faced, at least, and as a bonus, shared the invaders distaste for the more unpleasant ones. However, it seemed that the wildlife was not the only problem they faced.

How was the human still standing in heat of 27C or more? The squadron was having to rest every half-hour, to give their cooling units, the only things keeping them from being cooked alive, time to recharge. Certainly, the human had been drinking more water than usual, and had stripped down to a thin, single layer, but otherwise she seemed largely unbothered by the infernal heat.

Unable to resist, the captain approached the human as the squadron all-but-collapsed at their next rest break. “How do you stand it?”

The human finished drinking and moved to refill their water-bottle. “You may need to be more specific. If you mean your general existence, I’m only going along with this to avoid being murdered.”

Humans were so dramatic! She would merely be dissected and studied to further enhance their knowledge of Solaris 3. Perhaps parts of her adaptive DNA might be cloned and mutated for their own use, but nothing a healthy A”vaar’i could not survive. “No, the heat.”

To his surprise, she laughed. “This? Oh, mate, you ain’t seen nothing yet!”

The captain frowned; he would have remembered mating with the human, and he was very sure that it wasn’t even possible. Likely it was yet another instance of confusing earth slang. The human appeared not to notice his reaction, cheerfully continuing to elaborate. “Just wait until we hit high summer! It gets all the way up to the 40′s, then.”

The captain was glad that his helmet hid him from the human’s sight. It would not do for the human to see the expression of horror he wore. “Surely you jest.”

She shook her head, some of that insufferable cheer back in her voice when she heard the dismay in his. “Nope. Be glad we’re in the plains and not the desert. That’s even worse.”

 _Worse_? It could get worse than this? The captain tried not to let panic at the very idea. “How do you stand it?”

She shrugged. “We didn’t get to be the dominant species by being the biggest and strongest. We survived by adaption, by the ability to withstand extreme temperatures, to shape the environment to our needs and to outlast the creatures we hunted.”

Something about her tone caught the captain’s attention. “Outlast?”

The human bared her teeth in what the briefing said was a smile, though there was little friendly intent behind it. “I’m not even in peak health, and I can walk for hours, even in this heat. We used to follow our prey until they could flee no more and died of exhaustion. Or we killed them.”

The captain had a very bad feeling, confirmed by the human’s next words. “I’ve been watching. You can’t stand extreme temperatures like up, and even in tempered weather, you have to rest frequently, for longer and longer periods. If we’d thought to try pursuit predation from the start, your invasion would never have succeeded.”

Her smile became vicious, like those of the thrice-dreaded tiger, and she leaned in. “I’ve been leading you in circles for the past week, and I’m well-rested. I could kill you, but I’m not feeling quite that merciful. Bye!”

* * *

They chased her, of course, but to no avail. The human walked at a brisk pace, for hours on end. Even moving at full speed during their mobile intervals, they caught only glimpses of her before they were forced to stop and rest. By the second day, they had lost not only the human, but any idea of where they were.

The human had been right; it would have been mercy to kill them.


End file.
